Primary Valor, Jack Mars [black female authors .txt] 📗

said. “Afterthis fiasco, I promise you’ll be out of a job.”

Luke nodded. As the adrenaline waswearing off, his shoulder was starting to throb. Pretty soon it was going to bea sharper pain, maybe even agony. He wasn’t looking forward to that.

“I hope you’re right,” he said. “Thisjob is for the birds.”

“You’ll be in prison the rest ofyour life. I saw you murder four men in cold blood.”

“Elaine,” Luke said. “If you canbehave, I will cut your wrist ties. If you can’t behave, I’m going to consideryou a risk to self and others, and leave you just the way you are. It’s yourchoice.”

“Stone,” the pilot called. Thechange in his voice was palpable.

Luke went back to the doorway. “What’sup?”

“We got bogeys on radar, man. Theyjust came off the mainland of Honduras, moving fast. We’re right on their nose.”

Luke’s shoulders slumped. “Can weoutrun them?”

The pilot shook his head. “Not onyour life. They are howling.”

“What did you think would happen?”Elaine shouted. “Did you think you could just attack someone’s home, kidnappeople, and nothing would happen to you?”

“I’m the FBI, you idiot.”

“I don’t care who you think youare.”

The pilot glanced back at Luke. Lukesaw it then, in the man’s eyes, all over his face: fear. The guy was afraid. Helearned to fly in the Air Force. That didn’t mean he was a combat pilot.

“Got any bright ideas, Stone? We’llnever make Jamaica, I can tell you that.”

Luke patted his cargo pants. “Ihave another destination. It’s a small airfield in Honduras.”

“Darwin owns Honduras. That’s nogood.”

Luke found the page and pulled itout. The paper was protected by some lightweight laminate. He handed it to thepilot.

“This has the coordinates. It’s atiny place, a speck on the map. It’s classified, run by American intelligence.”

“Darwin owns Americanintelligence!”

Luke shook his head. “No one ownsAmerican intelligence. It’s too big. Too many factions. These people arefriendlies, as far as that goes. We just need to get there.”

The man looked at the sheet. “Okay.Okay, it’s close. Changing heading. We are going to…”

He glanced at the radar. The airseemed to go out of him.

“Two more bogeys, closer, comingfrom the east. Seven miles and closing fast. I don’t even know where they camefrom. They must have been patrolling out over the water. We’re cooked, man. Weare not going to make it.”

 “Steady,” Luke said.

“Two behind us, two coming in fromthe east. We are cooked.”

Luke shrugged. “They can escort usto the airfield if they want.”

“I doubt it,” the pilot said.

“Why’s that?”

“One of them just fired a missile.It’s coming from our right. Six miles.” He turned back to Luke again. He lookedlike he was almost about to cry. “Better go buckle up. This is going to beawkward.”

Luke felt something in the pit ofhis stomach. It wasn’t despair. Call it disappointment. A deep, bitter, darkdisappointment.

“Can you evade it?”

“I’m going to try.”

Luke went back into the passengercabin. Suddenly, before he could get to a seat, the plane lurched to the left. Itbanked hard and Luke tumbled to the floor. He landed on his wounded shoulder. Asearing pain went through it, so much that he nearly passed out. He gritted histeeth.

The plane was shuddering, it wasbanking so hard. The pilot whipped it around the other way, leveling, thenbanking hard to the right. Luke rolled over the other direction. Elaine, wriststied behind her back, fell out of her chair. Now she was on the floor, five orsix feet from Luke.

“Heat seeking!” the pilot shouted.“I can’t shake it!”

“Charlotte!” Luke shouted. “Put yourseatbelt on!”

The pilot went into a steep climb.Luke was pressed to the floor. He crawled like a worm to a seat and yankedhimself up into it.

He clipped his belt. At thatsecond, the plane went into a steep drop, nose down. It was so sudden that Elaineflew off the floor and into the air. She screamed as she was thrown against thewall. Behind Luke, Charlotte also screamed.

“Here it comes!” the pilotshouted.

The plane banked hard to the leftagain.

Ga-BOOOOM.

An explosion rocked the plane. Brightlight was everywhere at once, flashing through the windows. Luke was thrownforward, against his seatbelt. His head whipped around. For a second, hethought the plane had broken apart.

The cabin lights were knocked out,and everything went dark. Weak green lights lit up along the floor. A red EXITsign came on over the door.

The turbulence was incredible. Wasthe pilot even alive?

“Pilot!” Luke shouted.

“Mayday!” the pilot screamed. “Wehave Mayday!”

“Where are we?”

“Land coming! We are over thebeach. Losing altitude.”

“Are we hit?”

“I don’t know. We’re losing fuel. Welost an engine. Something’s—”

The plane lurched, droppingaltitude.

“Oh God.”

Luke unbuckled, stood, andstumbled to the cockpit door. The plane bucked and bounced. He shouldn’t bestanding, but someone needed to steady this pilot.

“How far to the airfield?” Lukesaid.

The pilot checked his instruments.“Uh… thirty… thirty-five miles.”

“Can you keep it up that long?”

“No. We’re right above thetreetops now.”

Luke looked out through the cockpitwindow. It was impossible to see out there. The plane started to shudder again.It rode some turbulence.

Instruments started to blink off. Theentire panel was going dark.

“Go sit down,” the pilot said. Hisvoice had changed again. It sounded resigned. “I’ll hold it up as long as Ican.”

“Can I help you?”

The pilot shook his head. “There’snothing you can do.”

Luke nodded. “Okay. Good luck.”

“Good luck to you.”

Luke worked his way back throughthe plane, swaying from side to side. Elaine was on the floor, twisted at anodd angle. She was not moving. The plane lurched again, dropped altitude. Lukewas off his feet for a second.

He went all the way to the back,as far as he could go. Charlotte was this far back, and he sat down beside her.The back of the plane was the safest place to be.

The plane lurched and droppedagain. It went up hard on its left side.

The pilot screamed, a howl, nowords.

Luke looked at Charlotte. The girlwas crying. He reached and took her hand.

“It’s okay,” he told her. Thewords meant nothing. It was obviously not okay. It was anything but okay.

He closed his eyes and sat back. Animage of Becca and Gunner appeared before him. The plane bucked and shuddered. Therewas a loud BANG as it hit something. Then another BANG. And another.

The pilot screamed again.